https://www.newark.com/metcal/mx-ds1/desolder-hand-piece/dp/41B5513
Oh... yeah. And tweezers too. And custom heads for DIP8/14/20, etc... and all the cleaners and... and... ![Laughing :-DD](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/smiley_laughing.gif.pagespeed.ce._hfWAz_QHO.gif)
mnem
![Tweak :-/O](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/smiliey_cal.gif.pagespeed.ce.yYMcAvxBJk.gif)
A kings ransom to pay for them too?
I find that winding the temperature up a bit and adding a load of fresh solder helps a lot when working with large ground planes.
This is mostly for those playing along at home:
Yeah, that seems to be a common misconception here and everywhere soldering is discussed. There is a huge difference between cranking up the temperature vs delivering more heat. There is a reason we have big wide chisel tips with lots of mass and contact surface and tiny conical tips to reach tiny spots and almost every variant in between, even with conventional soldering irons. While you
can make do by cranking up the heat on a smaller iron, it really is not the right way to do it, and often results in burning the substrate and lifting traces because right at the contact point you are delivering much too high a
temperature to the work.
The difference with MetCal/SmartHeat and similar HF/inductive heating technology... and it
really is something that has to be experienced to understand... is that it consistently delivers much more
quantity of heat in a smaller tip than any resistive element iron is physically capable of doing.
You really do get a quantum level higher
performance for your money.
The question then becomes one of budget vs need (or in my case, very limited space in my workbench bag) ;
there simply is no question that if you can spend it, MetCal is worth every penny.mnem
![Flogging A Dead Horse :horse:](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/DeadHorse.gif.pagespeed.ce.kBWvHKqCd1.gif)